The reason that female participants and small animal
practitioners were represented with a relatively low
proportion was that total number of females and small
animal practitioners were less in these regions. These
might have caused a bias in favor of the male
participants and large animal practitioners in the current
study. The clinics included in the sample group were
restricted to those in the Central and Eastern Anatolia
regions due to transportation problems. It could be said
that these types of restrictions occurred in this study may
have resulted in weakness to represent all practitioners
all over Turkey.
About half of the participants were not satisfied with
their life based on the evaluation of general life
satisfaction set which is compatible with the results of
study conducted on veterinarians in different sectors by
Özen and Ateş 2. A study conducted by the State
Institute of Statistics on Turkish citizens 10 revealed
that more than half of the participants were not satisfied
with their life which is similar to the life satisfaction level
of Turkish veterinarians.
It was observed that the veterinarians having been
between 31-40, over 51 years of age, having clinical
experince of 11-20 years and having annual income of
over USD 17.500 are more satisfied with their life
according to the demographic variables. Even though no
attitude differences were observed in terms of gender,
males scored life satisfaction set higher than females.
Older and more experienced veterinarians displayed
more positive attitude on life satisfaction compared to
other demographic groups based on age and work
duration variables even though no statistically significant
differences were observed for their replies. The studies
conducted on professional satisfaction and job
satisfaction of Turkish physicians 11,12 have shown
that older and more experienced physicians have more
positive attitude on life satisfaction compared to younger
and less experienced physicians. Again, Özen and Ateş
2 reported that age and experience are the factors that
increase job satisfaction. Similarly, positive effect of
experience has been reported on income in the USA and
UK veterinarians 13,14,15. Results of age, experience
and life satisfaction relations in our study support the
above literatures.
Generally, life satisfaction is accepted as a degree
that an individual achieves his objectives and that
increases with high achievements 16. Even though it is
difficult to explain professional satisfaction in a monist
approach by relating it to a single reason as pointed out
by Başaran 17, it is accepted that job satisfaction is the
most important element in life satisfaction since it has a
crucial part in life of an individual 16. Ünal et al. 12
reported that there was a relation between job
satisfaction and life satisfaction whereas Musal et al. 11
reported that one of the most important factors that has
effect on job satisfaction was income level. The results of
our study showed that increases of income affect the life
satisfaction positively and the veterinarians earned more
than USD 17.500 annually are more satisfied with their
life. It could be said that our results support Ünal et al.
12 and Musal et al. 11.
According to Davis 18 job satisfaction is the
pleasure or displeasure of people related to their jobs.
Positive attitude towards job is equivalent to job
satisfaction whereas negative attitude means
dissatisfaction 19. In addition, according to Taner 20
satisfaction of an individual with his job affects his
enjoying his profession and that the value he gives to his
profession positively; whereas according to Bingöl 21
dissatisfaction with job affects the approach towards the
profession and other aspects of life negatively. In
addition to these findings, Kemerlioğlu 22 reported that
professions are regarded as a main indicator for
determining social classes and professional position
which is parallel to the satisfaction of an individual.
Likewise, in our study, it was observed that the subjects
who regarded veterinary medicine as an dissatisfactory
profession (42.2%) felt themselves in medium or lower
sociologic classes (74.8%) and who think that status of
veterinary medicine in Turkey is “bad” or “quite bad”
(85.9%), displayed a negative attitude in terms of
dissatisfaction towards life in general. Depending on this
data, it can be said that dissatisfaction with life may be
related to job satisfaction and such dissatisfaction may
have significant negative effects on the point of view
about the veterinary profession in general.
Based on our results, 95 per cent of veterinary
practitioners earn less than USD 20,000 annually.
Hunger and poverty levels were reported to be USD
4,700 and USD 15,000, respectively by the
Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions for minimum
living conditions of a family for four members 23.
Considering this, 5 per cent and 77 per cent of the
participants are under hunger and poverty levels,
respectively. Özen and Ateş 2 reported similar results
that 20 per cent of veterinarians are under hunger and
per cent 87 under poverty levels.
It has been reported that average starting income in
the last six years (1998-2003) for the veterinarians
working in large animal clinics is about USD 45,000 in
the USA 24,25,26,27,28,29 and 24,000-36,000 in
the UK annually 15. It has also been reported that 10
per cent of the veterinarians in the USA has the lowest
income with USD 38,000 30. Experienced Turkish practitioners even with the highest level of income earn
less than the veterinarians just started working in the
USA and UK. These show a significant gap between
income levels of the veterinarians in Turkey and in the
USA and UK, and could be considered as an evidence of
negative situation of veterinarians in Turkey. It should be
pointed out that this negative trend is not only peculiar to
Turkey. According to the results of “Managing Your
Economic Future in Veterinary Medicine Symposium”
held in April 1996 in the USA, it was reported that the
veterinarians who are the member of JAVMA do not
have expected average economic levels 31. It has also
been reported that even though average income level of
members of other professions that can be compared to
veterinarians like physicians and surgeons has increased
within the last decades, income level of veterinarians has
not increased and moreover the veterinarians started to
feel ashamed of their profession due to low starting
income 32.
In addition, AVMA former chairman Dr. Sherbyn W.
Ostrich 33 stated ongoing erosion in veterinary
medicine with potential negative effects on life quality. In
this context, it can be said that the status of the
veterinarians has a global dimension depending on
macro-economic structure of the relevant country.
When the relation between reasons for selecting
veterinary medicine and general life satisfaction taken
into consideration, it could be said that the preferred
factors like income level, reputability and scope of the
profession in selecting veterinary schools had positive
effects compared to the selections made under family
influence unconsciously on life satisfaction. The percent
of the participants who stated that their decision was not
influenced by their families or having been unconscious
was only about 50 per cent and this shows that the
problems start at the very beginning of entrance to
veterinary schools. In addition to these factors,
decreased interest in the veterinary schools both in Turkey 4 and the USA 34 may show the relation
between life satisfaction and selecting veterinary
medicine as a profession. Thus, it can be said that there
is mutual interaction between the reasons for preferring
veterinary schools and factors like job and life
satisfaction.
In addition to these, it can be said that one of the
factors that affects future of veterinary medicine and life
satisfaction of veterinarians is the number of schools and
graduates. It has been reported that 2000 veterinarians
graduated from 27 veterinary schools in the USA,
encountered serious problems after graduation and most
of whom were employed in small animal clinics and
continuation of this situation may be a serious threat for
future of the profession due to the rapid increase in the
number of veterinarians 34,35.
Even though currently the UK is not affected, the
numbers of veterinary graduates have been increasing
since 1980s and this might be thought to cause
employment problems in the future 36. Compared to 52
veterinary schools in the EU excluding its last 10
member 37, it can be said that these concerns related
to the increase of the number of veterinary schools and
graduates are more evident in Turkey with 19 veterinary
schools and might cause serious problems in the future.
As a result, opening of veterinary schools without
planning resulting in high number of veterinary graduates
cause significant difficulties for veterinary practitioners in
Turkey. Such problems become more severe in countries
like Turkey that do not have a powerful economy. In
addition, it can be said that such problems have a
tendency to become global as well.
Acknowledgments
We thank Ender İleri and Hüseyin Gözün DVM,
Sanovel Drug Inc., and Erkan Uygur DVM, Yöntem
Medikal Inc.
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